Letter: BCC's Gelenian transcended role of professor

At Bristol Community College recently, the late professor A. Arthur Gelenian was honored as professor emeritus.

I was well-acquainted with Art Gelenian. He and I were close friends and colleagues for more than 40 years. If ever there were someone about whom the phrase "Scholar and Gentleman" might accurately be applied, Art Gelenian was that someone.

Always thoughtful, pleasant and amiable in personal demeanor, Art was consistent, conscientious and enthusiastic in devotion to the study of his academic disciplines — history, religion and philosophy — and to the intellectual advancement and growth of his students.

His studies and instruction were accompanied as much by a quiet inner joy as by a keen sense of responsibility. Because he researched endlessly, he was always prepared — and never limited his teaching to the classroom. He taught in his office, in the hallways, in the cafeteria — always eager to share his truly prodigious learning, insight and comprehension with whomever was willing to listen. To say it another way, the world was his classroom as well as his subject.

We were all his students and we have all become the beneficiaries of his scholarship, enlightenment and humanity.

Gregory Maravelas

Fairhaven

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